Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Dec 11 –
is to be eternally remembered for that iconoclastic freedom fighter - born in a small village called Ettayapuram on
Dec 11' 1882 ~ the man who breathed freedom struggle. He was on the run – still his indomitable
will and his concerted action mobilized masses, making them aware of the need
for freedom in the Southern India.

Today,
we remember Mahakavi Subramanya Barathi…. The greatest of modern poets who
acclaimed that ‘writing poems is his profession’ – but lived the life of
fighting for independence. The Swadeshi
movement, which gathered momentum following the Partition of Bengal, drew
Bharati deeper into nationalist politics. He attended the Calcutta Congress in
1906, where he met Sister Nivedita to whom he dedicated two early works in
Tamil. Bharati edited the nationalist Tamil weekly, India, which articulated
the militant Indian nationalism of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The revolutionary poet
had a flair for languages. He was proficient in Sanskrit, Telugu, English, and
French. He wrote with felicity in English.

The
poet was closely associated with many Swadeshi leaders in the south, including
V.O. Chidambaram Pillai. When the British Raj clamped down on the Swadeshis, he
took refuge in Pondicherry in 1908; Aurobindo and V.V.S. Iyer also sought
shelter there later. In 1920, Bharati returned to Madras to rejoin
Swadesamitran. He met Mahatma Gandhi and wrote an oft-quoted poem in praise of
non-violence. But his last years were tragic and he died in obscurity in
September 1921.

The greatest
poet thundered - All servility, whether of an inherited or acquired character,
must be definitely abandoned by men who aspire to guide the affairs of the
nation. There are stories that the temple elephant killed him. It is not as though
he was killed by the pachyderm with a single stroke. At his prime youth his
health had been adversely affected by the imprisonments and the ill-treatment
meted during the time of incarceration. The push by the elephant was perhaps
was the last straw for the ailing Poet; he survived the incident but died after
a few months.

At
Thiruvallikkeni, where Barathiyar lived – Vanavil Panpattu Maiyam is organizing
a 4 day fete concluding day… had written a couple of posts on this earlier.
Remembering the great Poet Freedom fighter Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathiyar
today.